Anyone who thinks dropping the bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war crimes are fools. While usage of such terrible weapons were horrible they were necessary. The Japanese militarists would have sacrificed untold millions of their own people in furtherance of their war aims. The numbers of US dead would have been equally catastrophic.

FIL’s cousin was on board a troop ship headed for Japan when the bomb was dropped on Nagasaki. Their commanding officer lined them up and said, “now look at the man on your right and on your left; two of you will not make it back, and I am giving you a realistic picture of what you face”. On the way over, they got the word that the Japanese had surrendered. If that had gone forward, my father, already a hardened combat veteran would have probably been sent over there. - Sad to say; but it was a shock that instantly civilized formerly uncivilized people and freed those they held in bondage.